ASUS has started selling its 15-inch ZenBook Pro 15 UX550GE ultra-thin laptop featuring Intel’s six-core processor, NVIDIA’s discrete GPU as well as a factory-calibrated 15.6-inch display with a 4K Ultra-HD resolution. The laptop is available in only one configuration, but good news is that it is relatively affordable as it costs less than $2000.

The ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 UX550GE-XB71T is based on Intel’s six-core Core i7-8750H processor accompanied by 16 GB of DDR4-2400 memory as well as a 512 GB NVMe SSD. The laptop has NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU with 4 GB of memory that drives its 15.6-inch multi-touch IPS display featuring a 3840×2160 resolution and is factory-calibrated to a Delta-E <2 accuracy.

The latest ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 comes in ‘Deep Dive Blue’ aluminum unibody with rose gold edges to highlight its first-class nature and positioning. The laptop features an 18.9-mm z-height and weighs 1.86 kilograms, thus being thinner and lighter than most 15.6-inch laptops. As for battery life, the notebook can work for 9.5-hours on one charge (according to MobileMark 2014) on its 71 Wh lithium-polymer battery.

On the wireless connectivity side of things, we see Intel’s Wireless-AC 9560 CNVi solution featuring 802.11ac Wi-Fi (with up to 1.73 Gbps throughput) and Bluetooth 5.0. As for physical connectors, the notebook is equipped with two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 headers, an HDMI display output, a microSD card reader, a TRRS audio jack, and a proprietary jack for charging. As for conferencing, the laptop has a VGA webcam, Harman Kardon-badged stereo speakers, and a microphone array.

The ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 UX550GE-XB71T notebook is available directly from ASUS in the U.S. as well as from large retailers like Amazon and Newegg. The laptop costs $1,799, but eventually ASUS may expand the number of configurations and introduce models that are more affordable (Core i5-8300H-based) or more expensive (Core i9-based).

13 Comments

Looking at similar specced models (i7, 1050Ti, 15" 4k, 16GB, 512 GB) the cheaper HP models are significantly thicker/somewhat heavier roughly 1" vs 0.7", Lenovo has a model that's a much closer match selling at $1680 discounted from a $1849 MSRP. That suggests that once the it's new so we're not going to discount it at all period is past the Asus should be a lot closer to it in price. And while still relatively fat the HP Omen is the only premium segment model (pavilion's are a mainstream model) is also $1700.

And in the ultra-thin category I think there's a lot to be said for staying with lower TDP models to keep temperatures/fan volumes down.

USB-PD can't deliver enough power to keep it from draining the battery while gaming and plugged into the wall. It tops out at 100W, this has a 45W cpu, 64W GPU (both higher as long as they're running above base clocks), and a few more watts to run rest of the system at load.Reply

It has a 71w battery which takes just under 10 hrs to drain on that mobile mark test. That means it has an average power draw of 7.1-7.5 watts/hr. This will likely come with a 45 or 65 watt charger so it can charge and run at the same time. Well within USB-PD spec.Reply

Manufactures usually design their PSU at greater than the combined TDP of all components, unless it's Apple. The peak TDP of CPU is usually 65W on windows laptops, while GPU compromises its power whenever necessary. If ASUS keeps its design, the PSU would be 130W, only Dell managed to make a type-c PSU (non USB-PD) with that much power.Reply